Speaker: Ms. Linda Ohama
Topic: A new play “From the Inland Sea”
Location: Aoyama Campus, Room 17-610 (Honda Auditorium)
Date: Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Time: 1:20 PM to 2:50 PM (3rd period)
Ms. Linda Ohama is an award-winning Japanese Canadian filmmaker who produced and directed the film Obachan’s Garden (http://culturevulture.net/film/obachans-garden/) and the documentary film “Tohoku no Shingetsu” (“New Moon Over Tohoku”), which concerns the experiences of people in Tohoku who were affected by the earthquake/ tsunami/ nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011 and its aftermath.
The speaker will talk about her recently performed play “From the Inland Sea,” and students will be asked to perform scenes from it that they practiced in class. She will put the play–which involved experiences of her Japanese Canadian grandfather during WWII–into context by giving some background history of the internment of North Americans of Japanese descent during the war.
To be even better prepared for the lecture, read the attached interview and review the script (Act 4 of the play) that teachers will use in class to prepare students for the lecture. Read up on the background of the play here, as well.
It would also be useful for students and teachers who plan to attend the lecture to do some background reading on the internment of Japanese by the Canadian government during the war. Read this concise and well-written entry “Japanese Canadian Internment: Prisoners in their own Country” at https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/japanese-internment-banished-and-beyond-tears-feature .
August Bulletin 2019 Ohama
